Sunday, December 26, 2010

So there was another cross race today. After 3 weeks of no local racing it was time to see who was still motivated and who had called it quits for the winter. Spoiler alert: the majority of the KC cycling community is currently not motivated.

The event was Boxing Day Cyclo-Cross and it was located in Leawood, KS. Being that i grew up about 5 minutes from the venue there was no way i was going to miss it. not that i would of missed it anyway.

I figured there would be a small turnout and i was right. My race (cat 3) had 5 people. The open race had 2. The course was pretty one dimensional. Totally flat, totally frozen, one set of barriers, a few tricky turns, a little pavement. Thank god there was no wind and the sun came out, otherwise the 20 degree temps would have been tough to bare. After my last cold penis experience i got smart and wore tighty-whitey underwear under my fleece lined knickers. It worked. Like Kramer says, my boys need a house.

*Another cold weather cycling tip: warm your cycling shoes before you put them on, then your feet will stay warmer longer. i put mine in the sun, it worked pretty well.

Okay, this is going to be a shot re-cap since it was a pretty simple race.

I started slow and was in 3rd at the first turn. After the end of the first lap i was in 2nd. After the end of the 3rd lap i was in first. I'm not positive but i think that's the first time i've ever led a cross race. It was fun. Unfortunately my teammate cb turned out to be stronger and he took the win. i finished 2nd. Which is my best finish ever.... just don't tell anyone there were only 5 of us in the race.

I hung with the eventual winner for a while, but with about 3 laps to go (i think we did 9 total) he began to pull away. It's rather depressing when your sitting on someone's wheel and then all the sudden the gap begins to open. At first you think it's no big deal and you'll just accelerate out of the next corner to catch back up, then two corners later and he's completely off your radar. cb ended up beating me by about 1 minute. I think i rode too much of the race in the 'little bitch gear.'

No worries though, after the race was over i did my best Eddy Merckx impression by popping on my brand spanking new Moltini wool jersey and imagining that i had just out sprinted Jan Janssen to claim the 1967 world championships. It was a good feeling. Then we had some Mexican beer and food at a local dining establishment. It was so Eddy.

3 more cross races left. How bout we have a bigger turnout for the next one? Come on, KC. I got faith in ya!

Oh... and the Kansas City Chiefs are in the PLAYOFFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

The Xmas lights ride is exactly what it sounds like, we rode our bikes around to different Xmas light hot spots. And let me tell you, KC has lot's of Xmas light hot spots. And just in case your wondering... the key to a successful Xmas lights ride is: cheap beer, Christmas tunes via the portable radio (kudl was rockin!) good lights, and good company.

It wasn't supposed to be a night ride, but we started later than we should have and a flat tire meant it took longer than we wanted. On the plus side, we did get in some good trail running.

The trail seemed fun enough (moderately rocky and hilly) but we hadn't gotten that far when X flatted. We had no spares. We were faced with an interesting choice at that point... daylight was fading fast and since this was our first time on the Sac River Trail we had no idea where we were in relation to the finish. Do we go forward or back? We decided to go back and retrace out steps, 45 minutes later we had hike-a-bike'd all the way out. Thank god it was a clear evening and the moon was big and bright because it was dark for the last 10 minutes of our journey.

It's a little unnerving to be pushing your bike thru unfamiliar woods in the dark.

But we made it.

And anyway.... i've always dreamed of doing one of those epic mountain bike trips. Like riding over the Alps or across Costa Rica... and they say those races have a lot of hike-a-bike. So if i can just multiply what i did by 50 then i might be prepared.

The weekend also included rollerskating. I love rollerskating. It makes you feel like a kid again.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

What is Street Cred you ask? Click the link and read all about it. Actually the link isn't that big on details, but details are secondary. Do you like to ride your bike? Do you like to have fun? Do you like to hang out with good people. Do you like to drink beer? Do you like to appear attractive to cute hipster girls?

If you answered yes to any of those questions than keep Street Cred on the brain and ill see you in February!

I'd say it was a total power course. Long strait's, fast turns, a fair amount of pavement. There were a few off camber sections but that was pretty much the extent of the 'technical' stuff.

The cat 3 race only had about 11 dudes, all the fields were small, maybe it was the cold. The start was on pavement but i had trouble getting my foot clipped in and was last at the first turn.

Then i made a total bonehead move immediately after the first turn... i missed the next turn and rode into the pit, SH*T! Slammed the breaks, jumped off the bike, ran back to the course, started pedaling. Now i'm about 5 seconds behind everyone. Turn's out this was a big margin.

For a split second i contemplated just kicking it in the guts and trying to catch the group immediately, but instead i chose to ride steady with the hopes of moving up throughout the race. It worked out just okay, given the fast nature of the course i think i was screwed the moment i rode into the pit.

By the time the first lap was up i had managed to pass 3 dude's, and honestly, it was kind of fun to be chasing everyone. Of course i would rather be up front, i could see what was happening up there and it looked fun, but the body felt good and i could tell i was gaining ground. plus my friends were giving me time gaps and offering general words of encouragement. To help go faster i mentally told myself that my typical 'flat ground cross race gear' was actually now the 'little bitch gear' so i had to ride at least one gear harder. It worked, if you can push a bigger gear then you can go faster. i tried to stay out of the 'little bitch gear' as much as possible.

I passed 2 or 3 more guys with about 3 laps to go but the last of these dude's stuck to my wheel like glue, it would be like that until pretty much the end of the race. For the last two laps we had ourselves a legit game of cat and mouse and it was waaay fun.

There was nobody near us so we could afford to attack each other, then go slow, then attack each other again. Like a total boner i lead thru the long pavement section both times, allowing him to sit in my draft, and in general i think i could have played it smarter.

After neither of us were able to drop the other it appeared destined to come down to a sprint finish, which i was confident about and looking forward to. But then i got all hyper and attacked him on the last barrier. It didn't work, but it was waaay fun. Both of the barriers on course were followed by run up's which i had been throughly dominating all day. plus i consider myself a fine barrier goer over'r. So when that last barrier approach, i unclipped and gave it everything. In no time i was remounting at the top of the (short) hill and pouring my life into the pedal's. There was about a minute to a minute 30 left to ride from that last barrier to the finish line. It was an extremely painful minute to minute 30.

My attack opened up a good gap but i died on the pavement and he passed me with about 100 meters to go. Check the pic below for my gap going from grass to pavement, i was already fading by this point. It's been a while since i died in a race like that, considering the circumstances... it was a good feeling. I wanted to beat this dude so i went for it. It's fun to see what your body can do and it's good to know you gave it you're all for the entire race.

i finished 6 out of about 11.

The rest of the team did great and we now include the mens cat 3 and 4 Kansas state cyclocross champion's.

Bam!

In non-cyclng related news... later that night we had an enchanting dinner at Red Snapper to celebrate Grandma's 91st birthday. Keep it up Granny!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

A quick side note before i get on to the race... stopped into Grunauer last night and what did i find in the main dining room at 1am... the great grandchildren of the original Von Trapp family who inspired the film, 'The Sound of Music,' performing acapella. No microphones, no accompanying instruments, It was amazing. So beautiful. I guess the owners of Grunauer know somebody and since the Von Trapp kids were in town performing with the KC Symphony they had them come over to Grunauer for an impromptu performance.

Everyone should go to Grunauer, it's a magical place, kind of like a Hogwart's with alcohol.

Okay, on to the race.

So today was not my day, for whatever reason the cycling gods decided to curse me with 'slow as f*ck syndrome.' I hope you don't come down with it. Tonight i'll be sacrificing a virginal Focus mtn bike in the hope's of breaking the spell. I started on the last row, then basically gave up after two laps and soft pedaled the rest of the way. But that's okay.

Tomorrow is another race and my spirits are still high. Besides, soft pedaling for 5 or 6 laps of a cross race gives you a different perspective. Which is always good. It also gives you time to chug a Boulevard single wide (thanks cd) at the top of the hill and grab your camera for 'during the race / on the bike photos.'

And yes, my penis was cold. The Team Segal guy's got a real kick out of this when i mentioned it to them. i kept shoving my hand down my pants to try and keep it warm, hopefully somebody got a picture of that, but it was hopeless. So on the way home I stopped at Midwest Cyclery to buy some windproof underwear, but they didn't have any... and it's supposed to be colder tomorrow, yikes.

Enjoy the photos, hopefully i'll a more exciting race to re-cap tomorrow.